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3.14 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 4 5
woman's name is Lisa. She
works at a packaging plant
near downtown. (Lisa tells
me her last name but the bus
heaves at that very moment,
muddying the spelling of it
in my recorder.) A tiny silver
stud in her right nostril, Lisa
would rather have her own
car to take to work, but "you
do what you got to do." As
with most riders I will talk
to today, the bus is really her
only option. TARC beats
walking. For 45 minutes, Lisa
scrolls through her phone,
occasionally pausing to gaze
out the window.
For such a collective,
confned space, passengers
move in isolation. Head-
phones pump music into ears.
A book cracks open; heads
tilt down. Smartphones deliver Facebook or Twitter updates and Candy
Crush (a popular video game). Imaginations wander but interactions
between strangers rarely surface, especially on a reluctant Monday
morning.
As the bus moves west down Bardstown Road, passengers rotate on
and of. Wet footprints glisten along the foor. Not surprisingly, the
stretch of the 23 spanning the Highlands to downtown collects the most
diverse crowd. White men and women board, some fashing TARC
passes, on their way to work. (Interesting side note: TARC data shows
that only 7 percent of individuals who make $25,000 or less have their
TARC fare paid for by employers, while nearly half of riders making
$75,000 or more have employers who cover their fare.) In the after-
noon, it appears Highlands residents hop on and of for errands.
Still, 72 percent of the 23's riders are African-American. Seventy
percent also earn less than $25,000 a year. One rider I speak with in
the afternoon says this surprises her. You'd think as the neighborhoods
change, demographics would shift. After all, a recent Metro Human
Relations Commission report showed 45 percent of Louisville residents
live in "extreme segregation." (White households live among white
neighbors in more afuent eastern segments of the city. Black house-
holds live in black neighborhoods in older, urban areas.) But as the 23
travels through the elegant homes of Shawnee Park, past dollar stores
on West Broadway, and along brick ranches stacked near Jefersontown,
ridership never dramatically alters.
Te 23 isn't alone in this. While 15 percent of the region's popula-
tion is African-American, 55 percent of TARC total ridership is black.
Tirty-seven percent of TARC riders are white. Yet Caucasians total
77 percent of the region's population. TARC data shows that while 60
percent of minority riders make less than $25,000 a year, 44 percent of
white riders fall into that category. TARC reports that minority riders
tend to average longer trips, having to travel farther to get to shopping
and jobs. TARC can't control income gaps or the length of commutes.
Land-use policies play a big role. A lack of economic development in
poor, black neighborhoods shoulders some blame.
Rolling through downtown, passengers disappear at Floyd and
Broadway. A large crowd exits at Fourth. After fve years as a bus driver,
Chris Jarrett has memorized 23's passenger patterns. Te 41-year-old
with a boyish grin is a tell-it-like-it-is sort of guy. ("I guarantee I can
drive a bus in reverse around a whole city block and not hit one thing!"
he jokes one morning.) Barely breaking for a breath, he runs through
points along the 23. "I know when I get to Fourth Street, I'm going
Tarc's map of route No. 23 (top); Tammy Pruitt (above), an eight-year
TARC veteran, drives the No. 23 on a February morning.
42-53 Abort BUS.indd 45 2/20/14 3:31 PM